Column for Jan. 13, 2011

Generally, I find that when government gets out of the way of private enterprise, it operates more efficiently. When government tries to enter the world of enterprise, it generally is inefficient and more expensive. Three recent stories of government interference come to mind.

I work in the television industry for a large communications company. Company policy prohibits that I mention its name. I work with advertising video automation systems, so I have to deal with emerging and changing technologies on a daily basis. Trust me when I say that advanced technology has not necessarily made the job easier. Rather, it has become increasingly complex. When technology products are supplied by other companies, television networks, and advertising agencies, technology working and playing well together can be a real challenge. Welcome to my work life if that sounds confusing.

Having solved all other problems in this country, your Congress has passed a bill and our illustrious President Obama has signed The CALM (Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation) Act into law. It is a law that seeks to force video providers to control advertising audio levels on television.
The government forced television providers to institute technology that makes that very thing difficult and rather than deal with issues like national security, illegal immigration, profligate spending, and national debt, they thought that controlling the volume of your television was more important. That is typical of government; create a problem and then propose a difficult and expensive method of solution.

In other news, two dozen North Carolina Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) boards lost money in the 2010 fiscal year. Then the ABC boards had the audacity to turn around and oppose any thoughts of privatization of the ABC system in our state. Basically, they just oppose losing their jobs and control. It has been exposed that many ABC boards have been a haven for nepotism, bloated salaries and staff levels, and corruption. They are keeping private industry out of the liquor business, keeping it a monopoly. But that very monopoly is losing money.

In other states, liquor stores are privately run and are very profitable. Governor Perdue is contemplating the selling of the ABC system to private industry, and this is one area in which she and I agree wholeheartedly. There is no reason why liquor sales have to be run by government. The specious claim of the need for regulation and control has been made by ABC boards, but that does not mean that the stores and distribution system has to be run by the government. If government wants to regulate your television volume, they can certainly regulate the sale of liquor. Yet the president of the Association of ABC Boards has been quoted as saying, “We think control is a better idea than privatization.” We can have both. Other states do, and it works well.

Johnston County is getting in the way of progress when it comes to cell phone reception. The county has placed a restriction on the height of towers of 120 feet unless the company wanting the tower can prove that the lower height would hinder cell phone service in the area. Cell provider T-Mobile wanted to build a 195 foot tower in the Cleveland area. The county refuses to budge on the height restriction. The T-Mobile tower extra height would increase the tower’s range by 50 to 75%, but that does not matter to the county.

In Cary, some cell towers have to be made to look like freaky pine trees. In Raleigh, a cell tower was made into a church bell tower to hide its appearance. Out here in Johnston County, I don’t think that anyone wants bell towers or funky looking pine trees, but I am willing to bet that we all would prefer better cell phone coverage. For years, those in Johnston County who have mobile phones have had to tolerate what has been termed “cell hell”. We have experienced bad coverage, dropped calls, and slow internet service on smart phones. As the area has grown, so has the desire for improved communications systems.

I fail to see how a taller tower will be a detriment to the community. I don’t know why capricious, almost arbitrary regulations are set sometimes. Even when serving on the local planning board, I failed to see the need for some regulations whereas others were needful. This seems to me to be a case of government interference. Sometimes if government would simply get out of the way, we could have profitable liquor stores, better cell phone coverage, and private industry would not be pushed into difficult to control technology. Then again, why would we expect anything less than the oligarchical mentality we get from government?